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1As new technologies take on increasingly humanlike qualities, there's been a push to make them genderless. "People are stereotyping their gendered objects in very traditional ways," says Ashley Martin, a Stanford associate professor of organizational behavior. Removing gender from the picture altogether seems like a simple way to fix this. Yet as Martin has found in her work, gender is one of the fundamental ways people form connections with objects, particularly those designed with human characteristics.

2In her study, Martin asked participants to rate their attachment to male, female, and genderless versions of a digital voice assistant and a self-driving car known as "Miuu." It was found that gender increased users' feelings of attachment to these devices and their interest in purchasing them. For example, participants said they would be less likely to buy a genderless voice assistant than versions with male or female voices.

3While gendering a product may be good marketing, it may also strengthen outdated or harmful ideas about power and identity. The stereotypes commonly associated with men, such as competitiveness and dominance, are more valued than those associated with women. These qualities, in turn, are mapped onto products that have been assigned a gender.

4Martin's study also found that creating a genderless object was difficult. For instance, if an object's name was meant to sound genderless, like Miuu, participants would still assign a gender to it — they would assume Miuu was a "he" or "she."

5Martin sees a silver lining, however: She believes that anthropomorphism "provides an opportunity to change stereotypes." When women are put into positions of leadership like running companies, it reduces negative stereotypes about women. Similarly, anthropomorphized products could be created to take on stereotype-inconsistent roles — a male robot that assists with nursing or a female robot that helps do calculations, for instance.